Saudi Arabia: seeking security (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

I am aware that the minority Shia population, mainly in the Eastern Province, are not the happiest Saudi citizens; with occasional rioting and more.

So I was surprised to read that one town has been under siege for two months:

....the Saudi government had just begun a war on a town in the country’s restive east – a battle that is still raging despite receiving very little media coverage both within the conservative Kingdom and outside it. Traditionally Shia, Awamiyah – a 400-year-old district in the eastern Qatif province home to around 30,000 people – has been surrounded by siege barricades put up by the security services since attempts to evict residents turned violent on 10 May.

Link:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7877676.html

This report has a short film of protected diggers demolishing buildings, with armoured vehicles close by and firing machine gun bursts:https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20...zbaQSA.twitter

[davidbfpo]

Following the purge in KSA yesterday Bruce Reidel has a short commentary and he ends with:

The kingdom is at a crossroads: Its economy has flatlined with low oil prices; the war in Yemen is a quagmire; the blockade of Qatar is a failure; Iranian influence is rampant in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq; and the succession is a question mark. It is the most volatile period in Saudi history in over a half-century.

Link:https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ori...nal-guard.html

The BBC's report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41874117

[davidbfpo]

A lengthy profile of MBS, the Crown Prince which is not complimentary and at the end concludes:

Bin Salman has two essential goals, which help understand each and every one of his domestic and regional policies including his aggression against Qatar, his alliance-building activity with the UAE and Egypt, his war in Yemen, his efforts to secure western support by talking a little “liberal Islam”, and more: the first goal is to prevent a resumption of the ‘Arab Spring’. Those autocrats have all felt the heat in 2011, they feel a bit better now, but they also know that the ashes of that historic revolution are still burning under the snow and ice of the ‘Arab winter’. The second goal is, as mentioned earlier, regional Saudi supremacism and, if he could, the destruction of the KSA’s arch enemy and rival, Iran. There is nothing this crown prince and future king will not do or push others (Israel, Trump, etc.) to do to accomplish those two goals. If this dangerous character has his ways, it will mean the end of hope for Arab democracy, and wars without end throughout the whole region.

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-...at-not-reform?

[davidbfpo]

A short Brookings article by Bruce Reidel and as a taster:

The only clear winner is Iran. The top American general in the region said this week that Iran has accomplished more in Yemen in the last five years than it did in building up Hezbollah in Lebanon in 20 years. When the war began in Yemen, Iran had limited connections to the Houthis, it urged caution on the rebels but was ignored. Now it has a robust relationship. Iran has every reason to perpetuate a conflict that costs its rival Saudi Arabia some $5 billion per month and costs Iran a pittance.

Link:https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order...ry-commanders/